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New Concept Cars:
The Swiss Made Mindset
One of the most recent new concept cars is the Mindset by the Swiss car manufacturer of the same name. The car is designed to stand out of the crowd of new hybrid concept and production cars on a number of fronts.
The car is designed to run primarily as an electric vehicle. To this end the drive train is all electric, and the car has an on-board gasoline powered generator to top up the battery if required, much the same as the upcoming Chevy Volt. As with all hybrid and electric vehicles, it harvests energy from braking and rolling down hills to increase the range of the vehicle. The Lithium Ion battery gives the car up to a 100 km driving range.The car is intended to have a solar panel optional roof. This solar panel is connected to the batteries to allow them to charge when the car is at rest. This is an improvement over the Toyota Prius roof solar panel, which does not charge the car's battery. This is an excellent way to make sure you always have enough juice to get back home or at least to a nearby charge point.
The design team has gone out of their way to make the vehicle as easy on fuel consumption as possible. The chassis of the car is made of high strength aluminium. The wheels are far narrower than on a standard car, so that there is less resistance as the car is driving. The vehicle can use these narrower wheels because it weighs so little; a mere 800 kilograms total road weight. Despite its light weight, it has a low center of gravity and excellent handling, or so the company says.The retro look of the narrow wheels and round headlights is complemented by a bench seat in the interior. There is no doubt that this car certainly stands out in terms of looks and weight, though hopefully those looks will not hinder its sales. The company hopes to have the 10,000 of these cars sold next year. The asking price looks to be in the vicinity of $64,000 USD.
25 June 2009
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